My husband and I have our own office with two awesome staff members, both of whom smoke. A lot. They go outside to do it, but they do it right outside our door (we live in SC where there are no restrictions as to where you can smoke in public, and based on where our office is, I can't imagine where else they could go other than to their own cars). When they come back in, they reek of smoke. They have declined our insurance coverage because it is too expensive (we can't even come close to affording to cover it with them added because of their smoking), so I feel like we have no place, at least from an employer's perspective, to encourage them to quit. I casually joke that they should quit because it would save so much money, and they always say that they know they should quit, but it's so hard, etc. etc.

Now I was a social smoker in college, but these days I am incredibly sensitive, perhaps oversensitive, to cigarette smoke and the smell of stale smoke on people. When I have to work in close range with these two women, the smell really bothers me. However, that doesn't happen often, so I just deal with it.

One of these ladies has a newborn grandchild who lives with her (mom lives elsewhere - it's complicated), so she regularly cares for a newborn baby, smoking all the way (not with the baby in her arms, but she does smoke in her house and in her car with the baby present). We have recently had a couple of clients who've had babies and brought them by, and they have let both ladies hold their newborns without hesitation.

As for me, that prospect really makes me incredibly uncomfortable.

Not only do I not want my baby smelling like smoke after they hold him/her (because even if I am imagining it, I will be smelling it on my child), but it is arguably really bad for babies, especially newborns, whose immune systems are still relatively weak, to be exposed to the toxins that linger on a smoker's skin and clothing (a/k/a third-hand smoke, see http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/third-hand-smoke/AN01985).

Putting aside the issues of whether or not I am crazy to be uncomfortable about the grossness and the risks, can you all think of any ways to minimize my baby's exposure to them? I am inclined to simply not let them hold my baby, but I feel like they will be incredibly insulted. I imagine bringing the baby into the office in a carrier and saying I have to be brief for whatever reason (doctor's appt, etc) so that I don't have to take the baby out of the carrier, thus avoiding the situation entirely. I also know that if allowed, they will not be happy holding the baby for a minute or two but will want to hold him/her for a while (nevermind that they have work to do). This is the way they have been with clients' babies.

My husband is as anti-smoking as the next guy, but my guess is that his take on it will be to just deal with it, that it's not that big a deal. Honestly I just thought of this earlier today, when I saw one of them go take a smoke break, so he and I have not discussed it. I'd like to bring it up to him with some ideas in hand, so to speak.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this?